Monday, September 14, 2015

Benefits of statin use after ishcemic stroke

From 2007-2011,
77,468 patients who were not taking statins at the time of admission
were hospitalized with ischemic stroke; of these, 71% were discharged
on statin therapy. After adjustment, statin therapy at discharge was
associated with a lower hazard (hazard ratio; 95% confidence
interval) of MACE (0.91; 0.87, 0.94), 28 more home-time days
following discharge (p less than 0.001), and lower all-cause
mortality and readmission. Statin therapy at discharge was not
associated with increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (0.94; 0.72,
1.23). Among statin-treated patients, 31% received a high-intensity
dose; after risk adjustment, these patients had similar outcomes
compared with moderate-intensity recipients.

Conclusions—In
older ischemic stroke patients who were not taking statins at the
time of admission, discharge statin therapy was associated with lower
risk of MACE and nearly a month more home-time during the 2-year
period post-hospitalization.